What Does Not Buying Really Look Like?
An Exploration of Less During a Time of Excess
By Anna White
For the past four years my two sisters and I have trekked to our local Delaware shopping mall the day after Thanksgiving - the day that officially heralds in the annual "season of consumption" - to promote a revolutionary new product: NOTHING(tm).
Donning season-appropriate Santa hats and matching "salesperson"
attire (T-shirts that read, "NOTHING(tm) What You've Been Looking
For!" and "Ask me about NOTHING(tm)," and gigantic shopping bags
labeled "FREE SAMPLES - NOTHING(tm)"), we walk silently through the
buying frenzy that has been in full tilt since the wee hours of
the morning.
On a typical visit, we are quickly approached by shoppers
wanting free samples of "whatever we have." We oblige, telling
our "customers" to put out their hands, then we pull out an
empty jar labeled NOTHING(tm) and proceed to pour nothing in into
them, while extolling the product's attributes.
"NOTHING(tm) is a revolutionary new product," we gush, "Guaranteed
not to put you debt... 100 percent nontoxic... sweatshop-free... zero
waste... doesn't contribute to global warming... family-friendly...
fun and creative!"
Our little improv act never fails to elicit smiles and laughter.
Mall management, however, has been less than humored by it.
Accused of "soliciting reactions," we have been physically
handcuffed and arrested, not once, but twice, charged with
"criminal trespassing," and banned from the mall for no less
than three years.
When it comes to ensuring the mall remains safe - safe for
shopping, that is - drastic measures will be taken!
What Buying Less Looks Like
While it can be risky in some states to promote "buying nothing"
at a mall, actually buying nothing - or less - is not. To the
contrary, many families are already consciously choosing to buy
less, both for their personal well-being and the planet, and
thriving.
By combining strategies of buying less, making, sharing,
bartering, repairing, renting, scavenging, and buying
differently, many families have dramatically reduced their
shopping habits and reaped sometimes surprising benefits. Many
have found that buying less means having more - more time, more
fun, better health, increased financial savings, and indeed,
greater freedom.
The Compact
Chris and Sandy Clark of Alameda, California, are members of the
Compact, a social network of people committed to buying nothing
new, with exceptions for food, and health- and work-related
items. The Compact began about two years ago in San Francisco
and has grown to approximately 1,500 members, who communicate
primarily via email but also through local gatherings.
"I read about it in the local paper and was immediately drawn to
it," says Sandy. "I told my wife about it, and we started
deliberately curtailing our purchases."
While the Compact is known for the principle of buying nothing
new, Sandy says that it also provides an incentive to reduce
consumption and de-clutter. As a result, the Clarks, who have a
two-year-old daughter, have found that it is not just about
substituting used things for new things; they have been
motivated to buy less overall and get rid of excess stuff.
Says Chris, "We used to pick up a lot of stuff at yard sales.
We've just recently gotten over that. All of that stuff felt
like it was trapping me. We started to see time spent looking
for stuff and sorting stuff and protecting stuff as wasted
time."
Indeed, the Clarks say that one of the most significant ways in
which their involvement with the Compact has affected overall
quality of life and standard of living is "a lot more family
time together."
"We used to overindulge at Target - an impulse buyer's haven,"
says Chris, "Since we've joined in February, we've been three
times - down from weekly."
Time that used to be spent shopping is now spent doing quality
things together, such as going to the library, the beach, or a
museum.
The family also got rid of their second car. Chris began taking
public transportation to her workplace and the family bought an
electric cycle through Craigslist.org. Their annual car mileage
has plummeted from 43,000 to 3,800 miles. The resulting 90
percent reduction in their gasoline bill, coupled with fewer car
payments, has been a "welcome change in the budget," says Sandy.
The Clarks say that there are "no Compact police to enforce 'the
rules.'" Rather, "to do it right really requires you to lead a
well-examined life."
For others interested in adopting a "buy nothing new" lifestyle,
Sandy recommends getting rid of advertising in your life, since,
"You can't want what you don't see."
Carless in Seattle
An accident that totaled the family car spurred Alan Durning's
family to try an idea they had toyed with before, but figured
was not very realistic for a family of five: going car-free.
They gave it a try for a few weeks then decided to extend the
experiment for a year, which the family is approximately two-
thirds into.
The family has found numerous benefits of living without a car.
"We are walking more and are fitter," says Alan, "We are less
stressed by traffic. The kids don't fight en route to places.
We get to know our neighborhood much better. And we are much
more intentional about our use of time."
It is the family's use of time that marks the biggest and most
unexpected difference. The real substitute for a car, says
Alan, is not a bus or a bike but planning. He says that not
having a car has pushed him off "autopilot" and helped him
reassess how he spends his time. He now gives greater priority
to things that give him "more joy."
People tend to consider the extra time that biking or public
transportation takes as wasted time, but Alan says it literally
creates time. "The health benefits are pretty substantial,"
says Alan, "The largest health study on exercise found that for
every minute of moderate exercise one extends lifespan by at
least that amount, and probably three minutes."
Alan says that it has been fairly easy to adjust to living
without a car and that it is "only one trip out of twenty that
is a real pain." He credits his family's successful transition
first and foremost to their living in a compact community.
Living in a compact community with a wide array of local
businesses has given the family the option of walking, biking,
or using other forms of transportation. The family has also
relied on Flexcar, a pay-by-the-hour car sharing service, to get
to places that cannot be reached readily by other means (such as
an early Saturday morning soccer practice miles away from any
bus routes or families that could carpool).
"Having a car is like an 'all you can eat meal plan' - it's
already paid for, so you might as well go back to the buffet and
load up again," says Alan, "Car sharing is more a la carte or 'a
la bite,' at eight dollars an hour."
Alan acknowledges that it is probably not practical for most
families to not have a car at all, however shedding at least one
car should be, as the Clarks have done.
"If you were to ask our kids now about what it is like without a
family car, they would say it's 'not a big deal.'"
Wasting Less
Over the past 30 years, Jeanne Roy of Portland, Oregon and her
family have taken steps to dramatically reduce the amount of
waste they produce. In a typical year, they now accumulate just
one trashcan full of waste, though this year they have not even
reached that amount.
"My motivations were two-fold," says Jeanne, "First, a 'do not
waste' ethic from my family that I retained. And second,
knowing the human impact on the earth, envisioning the harm done
to the earth - cut trees, oil rigs for plastic - what happens
before and after you have a product."
Jeanne has employed a number of strategies to reduce waste. One
of the most important is "precycling," eliminating future waste
by not purchasing it in the first place.
"When recycling, most of what is left is packaging," says
Jeanne, "So I think about packaging before buy. I'm willing to
spend more in order to get something without [throw-away]
packaging."
So what does one find in the Roy's trash can at the end of the
year? Things like plastic bread bags, dental floss, old photos,
and packaging made of materials that prevent them from being
recycled (such as cardboard orange juice containers with plastic
lining).
"I don't automatically buy the newest items," adds Jeanne.
"When something new comes along, I wait and ask myself, 'Is this
something I really want, that will really add to my life?' Some
things do definitely offer benefit, others I can easily do
without." Some of the items she and her family have chosen to
forgo include: a clothes dryer, a microwave, cell phones, air
conditioners, and a power mower.
In some cases, says Jeanne, buying new can mean buying less and
wasting less over the long run. When she does buy something
new, she makes sure that it is durable and repairable.
She finds that most things that the family needs can be bought
used, rented, or borrowed rather than purchased new. A member
of a book club, she takes books out of the library, rather than
buying them new, as many other members do. And she prefers to
borrow her neighbor's punch bowl for a once a year party rather
than having her own that takes up space the rest of the year.
Jeanne says that her family's quest to reduce its waste and buy
things used has had a positive impact on their standard of
living. "We don't miss anything and we save money, which gives
us the freedom to do more things."
From Consumer to Citizen
Last year, I told a reporter, "All I want for Christmas is free
speech!" Christmas morning, I opened a package from my sister
Rachel to find a paper figure labeled "speech" escaping a box
decorated to look like a jail cell, handmade made from recycled
materials. It drove home that indeed, the best things in life
can't be bought in a mall.
For many immersed in our consumer culture that instructs us to
"shop, shop, shop till we drop," it may be hard to visualize the
alternatives, which do not flash on a big video screen in the
middle of advertising-plastered Times Square.
The Clarks, Durnings, and Roys provide a snapshot of what some
of the myriad of alternatives look like. The steps that they
have taken to achieve success in buying less - be it cars,
stuff, or packaging - also suggest policy changes that could
catalyze more widespread changes in consumption patterns, such
as bans on advertising in certain places, zoning laws that favor
compact communities over unchecked urban sprawl, and legislation
mandating recyclable products and packaging.
This past June, my sister Rachel and I set up a booth to promote
NOTHING(tm) at a community festival on our hometown's Main Street.
We asked people passing by whether they viewed themselves more
as citizens or consumers. 100 percent answered "citizen."
Perhaps the real question we should ask ourselves is how much
time we devote in our daily lives to shopping and managing
"stuff" versus civic activities, particularly activities that
could lead to the types of systemic changes that could make it
easier for many more people to have more of what matters by
consuming less.
Anna White, aka NOTHING(tm) salesperson Frida Laff, is a global
citizen and activist based in Washington, D.C. When not taking
police mug shots with a Santa hat on, she coordinates Essential
Action's Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control program, which
works with groups in over 100 countries to curb global
consumption of a product that kills if used as intended. Anna,
a former New American Dream staffer, can be reached at
awhite@buynothing.biz. The commission for this article is being
donated to the NOTHING(tm) Legal Defense Fund.